Search this site

GOTHAM MEMORIES: NEW YORK CITY (1969-2022) Wandering the streets with his cameras, urban observer Jeff Rothstein has been photographing New York City since the dawn of the 1970s. GOTHAM MEMORIES: NEW YORK CITY (1969-2022) January 6, 2023 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Jeff Rothstein INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE As the sun rises over the rooftops of New York City, Jeff Rothstein wakes up to start his day as an urban observer. With his cameras in hand, Jeff embarks on his journey to capture the streets of his beloved city, just as he has done for five decades. His passion for photography dates back to the dawn of the 1970s, when he first roamed the streets of Brooklyn as a native of the city. A stroll down any given street transports us back in time, as each frame of Jeff's photos is carefully composed for the viewer to feel a part of his story. We witness life as it was through his viewfinder, from the mundane commutes to the liveliness of city life. His photos have become a treasure trove of nostalgia and a reminder of what this great city has been through over the years. Over the years, Jeff’s photos have appeared in a variety of publications, including Black & White magazine, SHOTS, Street Photographers Notebook special monograph edition, London Evening Standard, Daily Mail, Mojo, YES. Yoko Ono exhibition catalog, URBAN Unveils the City And Its Secrets Vol. 7, and Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever. Recent exhibitions include New York Public Library Mulberry St. branch, September-October 2022 (solo), Filter Space, Chicago, September-October 2022 (group), Black Box Gallery Online Annex, Portland, Or., September 2022 (group), ImageNation Paris at Galerie Joseph Le Palais, May 2022 (group), Porec Museum, Croatia, August–September 2021 (solo); H.P.F. Christopher, New York City, July 2017 (solo); and Winter, Analog Forever magazine, December 2019 (online group). His project Gotham Memories: New York City Images of the 1970s and 1980s won the Urban Photo Awards 2021 exhibition prize at the Poreč Museum (Croatia). Images from his book were picked as vintage award winners in Black & White magazine’s contests in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Jeff’s photobook, Today’s Special: New York City Images 1969-2006, was published by Coral Press Arts in June 2017, and is in the collections of many university and institutional libraries. Jeff Rothstein has been able to capture New York City with such beauty and vibrancy that it’s hard to believe he’s been doing this for over fifty years. His commitment to documenting his city’s history is unparalleled and makes us appreciate the ever-changing yet timeless beauty of this stunning metropolis. Follow Jeff as he continues to wander around New York, and take a peek into its past and present through his lens. “They are already memories once I press the shutter. These memories are at once mine and ours. Mine because they are what I have witnessed and captured with my camera. But they will be shared by all of us who know or have known the city intimately or casually or even remotely and vicariously. The photos are a record of history through a local eye. Many are evocative of the time and place of bygone eras, imbued with a timeless quality. The images in this portfolio span the years 1969 through 2022.” IN CONVERSATION WITH JEFF ROTHSTEIN THE PICTORIAL LIST: Welcome to The List Jeff, please tell us about yourself. What would you say first drew you to photography? JEFF ROTHSTEIN: I was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and lived there for many years. I’ve been living in Manhattan since 1988. I now devote all my time to photography. I used to attend lots of baseball games and thought it would be fun if I bought a camera to take to the ballpark. So my getting into photography was really a means to an end. TPL: How would you describe your photography, and what would you say you are always trying to achieve artistically? JR: My genre is street photography. I try to have the viewer feel like they’re right there with me as part of the theater of the street. TPL: Could you tell us what living in New York City has inspired in your work? What special qualities unique to the ‘Gotham City’ influence both your street and documentary photography and the way you portray your community? JR: Being a street photographer, I feel fortunate to live here. The city’s not as gritty as it was when I photographed years ago, but there always seems to be subject matter just around the next corner. I think people can sense the fast and crazy pace of life here when they look at some of my images. TPL: For the people who are not familiar with NYC, describe the atmosphere around you when you are photographing on the streets of NYC…the sensory perceptions that hypnotize and seduce you that constantly brings you back again and again. JR: When I’m shooting the streets of New York City I feel that I’m on the ultimate stage, with life’s everyday dramas and comedies always being played out. I seem to be drawn to the chaos that surrounds me. TPL: Did you ever think back then that you could be capturing an iconic era when you were photographing on the streets of NYC? In the future looking back at now, what do you think will be iconic about this era? JR: You know, when I was out photographing back in the day, I didn’t really think about iconic or historical eras. I was just recording life as it was happening. It’s only when I had the perspective of passing time that I realized I was recording a city that no longer exists. I think the same answer applies to photographing this era. TPL: What is the most rewarding part of being a photographer for you? What are some challenges that you have faced? JR: The most rewarding part for me is when people appreciate my images, whether through exhibits, books or online articles. Most of the challenges have been self imposed. I took a long time to finally decide to do my first photobook, though people whose opinions I respect were telling me to do one for quite a while. Finally having the book published was the best thing that happened to my career. When I’m shooting the streets of New York City I feel that I’m on the ultimate stage, with life’s everyday dramas and comedies always being played out. TPL: Is it impossible for you not to be constantly on the lookout for a moment to be captured? JR: Ha! Good question. I have to admit I’m always constantly scanning the streets looking for subject matter. TPL: How do you manage a work/photography balance? JR: I’m retired from previous jobs so photography is a full time pursuit for me. TPL: Do you have any favorite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? JR: Robert Frank, William Klein, Garry Winogrand, Saul Leiter. Plus a few great street photographers that unfortunately some people aren’t as aware of. These include Sylvia Plachy, Frank Horvat, Louis Stettner, Louis Faurer, Frank Paulin. Also the early NYC photos of Alfred Stieglitz and the NYC Ashcan School of early 20th century artists. TPL: What was the first camera you ever held in your hand, brought to eye, and released a shutter on? What is the camera you use now and your preferred focal length? Does the equipment you use help you in achieving your vision in your photography? Is there anything on your wishlist? JR: When I was a kid, it was my family’s Kodak instamatics. My first proper camera was a Kowa SETR slr, which I bought in 1969. For many years, I just shot with film cameras (Nikkormat FTN, Nikon F2A, Nikon F3HP, Nikon FM2, Olympus XA, Olympus Stylus, Rollei AFM). I still use the F3HP, FM2A, XA and AFM. My preferred focal length is 35mm, but I also like 28mm. Years ago, I also shot with 50mm and 105mm quite a bit. A few years ago, a friend gave me a small, inexpensive digital point and shoot (one of the Canon powershots.) I’ve been using that for all my digital images so no, I really don’t believe equipment is that big a deal. It’s the photographer’s vision that really matters. That being said, I really should upgrade to a better digital camera (have my eye on a couple of Fujifilm cameras). TPL: Are there any special projects that you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? What are some of your photography goals? Where do you hope to see yourself in five years? JR: I edited and sequenced my next book and now I’m trying to find a publisher. It’ll cover the same time span as my first book (1969-2006 New York City) but will have twice as many images. My goals are to produce more books and to continue to exhibit my work. Hopefully in five years I’ll still be photographing the streets of the city. TPL: “When I am not out photographing, I (like to)… JR: Go to art exhibits (my wife is an art historian), eat good food, watch film noirs, read, listen to music (60s and 70s rock and folk, jazz, classical, blues). PORTFOLIO WEBSITE INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

HUMANS IN MOTION Shawn Byron Danker is a Singapore based photographer who focuses primarily on physical manifestations of humans in motion in urban settings. HUMANS IN MOTION September 11, 2020 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Shawn Byron Danker INTERVIEW Karin Svadlenak Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Shawn Byron Danker is a Singapore based photographer who has been shooting professionally since 2006. To Shawn the cityscape is a physical manifestation of the very human tension between what is and what ought to be, and also the moral tension between what merely appears to be and what is unspoken. This constant double tension infuses Shawn’s photography, which both celebrates and rehabilitates the contemporary spaces and humans in their urban habitat. Shawn challenges himself to create and recreate this double vision in each new series he embarks upon, to help audiences become aware of the natural, the undiscussed, the undisputed, the implicit – and to ultimately reflect and question them. Shawn´s pictures have been showcased in publications in Bangladesh, France, Japan, the Philippines, and Singapore. Shawn has also held two exhibitions in Singapore. “I was born and raised in Singapore. I got into photography as a kid because I always wanted to create beautiful work that would make people stop to look at the story in front of them. My bread and butter is photojournalism so I use the storytelling skills I developed there in every other genre of photography I work in.” IN CONVERSATION WITH SHAWN BYRON DANKER THE PICTORIAL LIST: You have shared your photo project SHALL WE DANCE with us. What gave you the idea of photographing street dancers and turning it into a long-term project? SHAWN BYRON DANKER: I was in the middle of finishing up my second exhibition in Singapore when I started thinking about what would be the subject for my next show. I decided that I wanted to do something fun since my previous two shows were about dour and serious subject matter. I have always loved watching the human form and enjoyed dance as a spectator, but I felt I lacked the skills to properly photograph dance. After my second show ended, I felt I was now ready to take on the challenge so I decided I was going to use every trick I had ever learned to put my own spin on photographing dance. I wanted to mesh genres to hopefully create something new...I set out to show the world that dance and dance photography is more than just ballet. What you are now seeing with this body of work, is the fruit of that resolve. The plan is to eventually take this body of work and turn it into a traveling exhibit and coffee table book. TPL: In your street dance photographs, you pay a lot of attention to the setting. How do you pick a location, what criteria do you employ? SBD: The art direction’s mandate for this series is that the location should matter within the composition. The setting helps set the mood and reveal character. The negative space around the dancer should enhance their presence and impart a richer meaning into the frame. I also tell my dancers that they are not dancing in a vacuum; they should be using their bodies to tell a story of how the scene makes them feel. I use a lot of film theory when I look for locations and plan my shoots. I look for anything that helps build an engaging mise-en-scene, so that can range from the quality of light and shadow, the colors, but most importantly the shapes and forms that the structures impart to the scene. Working on this series has taught me to look at a location in front of me and see it as it could be. From there I start to figure out how I would compose the shot. Do I go for a composition using juxtaposition and or do I want to convey a sense of scale and perspective? It all depends on how all these factors come together while I look at what is in front of me and figure out if I can somehow add some visual tension into the shot. Sometimes it can take me years to finally figure out how to best use a location for maximum visual impact. TPL: You have told us that contextualizing your photos matters to you. Does it make a difference what type of dance genre you are shooting? For example, if you are shooting ballet, do you try to select different locations from when you are shooting street? SBD: Many people will argue otherwise but I see the series as a form of street photography because I apply a lot of street sensibilities into the composition. That is why context matters in my composition. Context helps to make a shot more engaging. The more engaging a shot is, the longer your eye will linger upon it to drink it all in and make for a richer viewing experience. For ballet, I look for locations that juxtapose the environment against the ballet dancer’s etherealness; soft versus hard. When I am looking to create something with an emphasis on pronounced statuesque shapes (think Rodin’s thinker) I bring in a contemporary dancer. I tell my jazz dancers that I want them to seduce and invite their audiences into their parlour like how a femme fatale would in film noir. For pole dance I tell the dancers to tone down the overt raunchiness and play up their physicality. Pole dance audiences tend to focus on the dancer’s sexiness and not how amazingly fit they really are. I want to break the negative stereotype associated with the genre. The photos you see may not show it, but some dance genres are a lot more difficult to shoot than you think. This Melbourne break-dance crew had plenty of energy to bounce off one another so I decided to use that to my advantage. I had some of them dance while their other crew mates were egging them on from behind the window, pretending to be spectators. Dancers from left to right: Michael Fox (@bboyflyinfoxy.rhf), Emmy Li (@ramenloverli), Andrew Mcintosh (@anndramcin) and Fauntine Lariba (@bgirlfontz) Josh Glavin (@joshglavin) tap dancing at an artificial waterfall in Tokyo. Scottish Dancer Natalie Smith (@nattts_dance) dancing Fosse style in a parking lot in Tokyo. Break dancer Syafiq Junior (@stylejoinsrhythm) leaning into Robot Love a mural by artist Sonny Liew in Singapore. Jazz dancer Angeline Chin (@angelineychin) on a stairway to heaven in Melbourne. Jazz dancer Kelly jams outside an Izakaya in Toranomon Tokyo. Wrecking Ball: Finding a pole dancer like Yoshimi Higo (@hkanon1112) who is both proficient and confident enough to take on the challenge of dancing outside the dance studio is a massive challenge in itself. Popping is a difficult genre to shoot because it's difficult to show the muscles popping while the dancer is moving so Shawn opts to focus on the dancers´ shapes instead. Popper Ryosuke Inagaki (ryosuke_1974) is juxtaposed here against the oldest part of Tokyo, Kanda City. TPL: Which dance genre do you think is the hardest to photograph then? SBD: It depends. To be frank, Dane Shitagi made a very pertinent point when he said that dance is best consumed in video form. This is because dance is a continuous sequence of movements. What I am doing as a dance photographer is akin to what sketch artists do when they draw gesture: capturing a movement to express emotion and motion. I love watching ballet but it can be a pain to shoot because of how perfectionist ballet dancers can be. Contemporary can be very challenging to audiences who have no dance training because they lack the dance vocabulary that would allow them to understand what they are looking at. But genre wise I would say the hardest ones to shoot are popping and pole dance. Popping is naturally stiff looking and you are confronted with this conundrum: how do you show your subjects popping their muscles while they keep their shirts on? I solved this little problem by directing the dancer to give me shapes and lines that identifies the genre to the viewer. Pole dance is hard because of two things: The logistics involved and the competency of the dancer. I do not use those portable poles that pole dancers sometimes use because I want the pole dancer to use what is within the natural urban environment. When I shoot pole dance, the first thing that I have to do is find a street sign that is situated in an interesting location. Then I have to find a pole dancer who is confident enough to be able to dance using a street sign instead of what they are used to in the dance studio. Finally after meeting these two conditions, I have to hope and pray that the conditions on the ground are favorable when we finally head there to shoot. That is why my very first pole dance themed shot took me five years to create. Popping is naturally stiff looking and you are confronted with this conundrum: how do you show your subjects popping their muscles while they keep their shirts on? I solved this problem by directing the dancer to give me shapes and lines that identifies the genre to the viewer. TPL: Do you in a way “choreograph” the dances you shoot? Meaning, do you tell the dancers what to do, or do you let them do their thing and just shoot? SBD: When I started on this series, I used to come into the shoots with a preconceived move that I wanted the dancer to do for the shot. I slowly began to realize as I gained more experience, that the best shots I ever got was when I let the dancer freestyle their moves. Doing this really let them improvise and inject their own personality into their movements instead of being boxed in by a specific expectation. I keep a large store of researched imagery on hand to show the dancers if they need some ideas, but I tell them to always put their own spin on their inspiration and make the shot/move theirs. For the most part I intentionally keep the art direction vague. I tell the dancers that they are free to do what feels right to them as long as I see shapes, lines or extensions. From there we make whatever adjustments are needed to improve the shot. The biggest breakthrough I have had was the realization that dance is not just about movement. Dance is also about what Jay Maisel and sketch artists would call gesture. The more engaging a shot is, the longer your eye will linger upon it to drink it all in and make for a richer viewing experience. TPL: In many of your photos there are dancers performing incredible leaps and twirls, and there are passers by seemingly unconcerned with what is happening. How does that happen? Do people not stop to ask what is going on, or at least to watch the action? SBD: Well they look unaware because they are usually on their way to wherever their life is taking them. Occasionally some of them stop to watch or ask what is going on. There has been a few times where we get an audience while we work who either applaud or smile at us while remarking “beautiful”, but that mostly happens when the passers by actually stop to pay attention to what is going on. TPL: Other than in dance, where do you find your inspiration? What else do you like to photograph? SBD: I find a lot of inspiration from video games, comics and movies. Some of my composition ideas come from movies by Denis Villeneuve, Wes Anderson or Akira Kurosawa. I also get a lot of ideas for my battle style dance photos from the Ryu Ga Gotoku (Like a Dragon or Yakuza) series. The cinematics in that game series contain some amazing dynamic cinematography. I love photographing street when I get the chance. It helps to hone my eye while helping me to relax. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? SBD: I adore Platon and Moriyama. Little Shao has been a constant source of inspiration for dance related photography. He is constantly trying new things with dance and street instead of repeating the same thing over and over. With regard to who has influenced my style the most. It is a combination of people. Akira Kurosawa’s movies taught me how to add a sense of kinetics into a shot by incorporating motion with stillness within my compositions. Film Noir, like the Maltese Falcon, gave me my love of using light and shadow for drama in my compositions. But my college friend, Dena, taught me the most important lesson I ever had to learn as a photographer: “Even if the shot is not technically perfect, you should find a way to make it work for you anyway.” It’s a philosophy that I have held close to my heart ever since she said it to me. She is the reason why I am not a technical photographer. I look for emotion and I shoot by feel. That is why my style tends to be very emotive. Is ballet dancer Catherine Donato (@catdonato) real or simply a part of the graffiti on Hosier Lane in Melbourne? Urban Dancer Alley Kerr (@alleykerr) takes a leap of faith while riding the subway in Tokyo. Breakdancer Takeo Okamoto (bboykamo1130) plays a trickster on a subway platform in Tokyo. This guy was outside Shibuya station posing for the cameras and I knew I just had to get a shot of him because he actually made his costume light up! In the end I asked him for 2 shots. Parkour Athlete Hikari Izumi (@hhhhi02) in Tokyo shows us how women can do anything that boys can. Daniel Sonic Rojas (@danielsonicrojas) works some parkour in Singapore. "Teardrop": Contemporary dancer Darnell Williams (@darnyyy_) is statuesque in the halls of the Harumi Futo in Tokyo. Aussie dancer Jess Page (@jesslbepage) decided to have some fun with this space in Tokyo. What camera/s do you use? Do you have a preferred lens/focal length? My workhorse is my Canon 1DX and the 24-70mm f2.8 lens. It is fast and it lets me break down the dancers' movements frame by frame to find the best moments. The zoom length also gives me a lot of freedom and allows me to work quickly without having to waste time trying to figure out whether a wide angle or telephoto lens would work better. For situations that require stealth and discretion, I switch to my Fuji X100F. It is silent and is the perfect walk around camera because its compact size does not intimidate people on the street at all. TPL: Are there any special projects, other than the long-term documentary on street dance, that you are currently working on? SBD: I have a few. The other book that I am working on simultaneously with SHALL WE DANCE is THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. It is a body of work where I am shooting revelers on the street during Shibuya Halloween. Halloween in Shibuya is like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but with costumes. I thought it would be fun to showcase the Japanese take on Halloween. I am also shooting PARKOUR as a spin off from SHALL WE DANCE; I take what I am doing with dance but apply it to parkour instead. Another project that I am working on has me photographing the architecture of public housing buildings. And I have a portrait series called WAR PAINT where I photograph headshots of wrestlers as they emote: a sight that wrestling fans never get to see up close. One day if I ever get the chance, I would love to do something with cosplay. TPL: “When I am not out photographing, I like to… SBD: Either look at other street photographers to research locations I would like to shoot dancers with or chill out and play some video games. Or eat. Because I have a weakness for food.” PORTFOLIO WEBSITE INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

PICTORIAL STORY THE EVERYMAN Eva Mallis uncovers the quiet strength of overlooked lives, capturing everyday encounters in Mumbai’s industrial districts as intimate portraits of labor and resilience. September 14, 2025 PICTORIAL STORY PHOTOGRAPHY Eva Mallis STORY Eva Mallis INTRODUCTION Karen Ghostlaw Pomarico SHARE Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link Eva Mallis is a New York City-based street and documentary photographer whose sharp critical eye uncovers the quiet narratives in everyday moments, translating them into compelling visual stories. With a visual language grounded in observation, empathy, and restraint, Eva documents daily life with precision. Her photographs are rich in detail, layering narratives that reveal the complexity of overlooked moments and unseen labor. Her photographs become human studies, social commentary, and quiet invitations to witness life as it unfolds, unadorned. Before ever lifting a camera, Eva was already an observer of life. For over two decades, she has navigated the intricate, fast-moving world of New York City real estate, a role she continues to inhabit today. This work has served as an urban classroom, sharpening her street sensibility, deepening her empathy, and granting her rare access to the full spectrum of human experience. These encounters quietly shaped her photographic voice long before it found its formal expression. In her images, she distills moments to their emotional and geometric essence, favoring clarity over spectacle, and truth over ornament. Educated at Georgetown University and The Wharton School of Business, Eva found her passion for photography post-college in Washington, D.C., before diving deeper into the craft at the International Center of Photography (ICP) and workshops around the world. Today she captures images across continents, drawing inspiration from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn to the industrial alleys of Mumbai and the open-air markets of Myanmar, seeking out everyday moments that reveal deeper human truths. In The Everyman , Eva offers more than a visual account of the streets of Mumbai. She reflects on labor, legacy, and the often unseen structures that shape daily life. What starts as a simple choice at a busy intersection gradually becomes a quiet exploration of work, and the human presence behind ordinary routines. Eva’s decision to walk toward the industrial district is more than a simple change in direction. It reflects the core of her work, which consistently draws her to people and places that are often overlooked. Her camera is not just a tool for documentation but a way of paying close attention. In the faces of welders, machinists, and haulers, she sees traces of her own history. They remind her of her father’s hands and of a legacy built through work, sustained not by language but by resilience and quiet determination. Eva shares her story with us, offering insight into her process and practice and allowing us to witness her inspiration firsthand. There we were, at a busy intersection in Mumbai — myself and a small group of photographers. It was my fourth time in India, and I was participating in a photo workshop. Our local guide offered suggestions on where to explore, hoping we’d capture the city’s vibrancy and its constant motion. “If you go to the right of the intersection, you’ll find colorful markets — produce, housewares, and families everywhere. If you go to the left, you’ll see the industrial side of town — recycling yards, factories, blacksmiths, and more.” Without hesitation, I veered left. To my surprise, I was the only one in the group heading toward the industrial area. So be it. Within minutes, I was weaving between trucks, men hauling heavy loads on handcarts, and the rhythmic sounds of machinery. I knew I had made the right choice. I’ve always been drawn to watching people move parts, operate equipment, and shoulder heavy burdens. I walked down narrow lanes, observing the cadence of work, trying not to intrude, offering only a smile to convey my respect and admiration for what they were doing. I spent several hours in that industrial pocket of the city — watching men unload stacks of fenders from trucks for recycling, garment workers bent over their sewing, and repairmen deep in concentration. It was a beehive of activity, utterly mesmerizing. By the end of the day, I had a collection of images that left me breathless. Reviewing my photographs later — alongside those from previous trips to India — I saw the thread I had been following without realizing it: the everyman. I am drawn to labor — not the abstract concept of work, but the physical presence of it. The cadence of movement. The choreography of muscle and machine. The quiet persistence of people engaged in tasks so ordinary they are invisible, yet so essential they hold the world together. Perhaps it’s in my blood. Why am I drawn to photographing people at work, immersed in their daily, often monotonous routines? Why does machinery, industry, and production speak to me so deeply? I think it’s because I feel compelled to document the everyman doing the everyday job. That pull is personal. I grew up watching my father, an immigrant from Greece, do just that. His skills as a cargo ship mechanic served him well when he arrived in America and found work as a plumber’s assistant. He didn’t speak a word of English, but he had a strong work ethic and labored tirelessly for many years, eventually achieving a measure of economic success. The road was not easy — it was filled with risks, disappointments, and moments of starting over. But he kept going. Perhaps that’s why, when I walk into an industrial quarter in Mumbai or a shipyard in another corner of the world, I recognize something familiar. The people I photograph — the welders, the recyclers, the machinists — carry the same steady resolve I saw in my father. In their focus, I see his focus. In their hands, I see his hands. The faces I find through my lens — bent over their work, hands steady, eyes focused — carry the same quiet dignity. And perhaps, without realizing it, I’ve been chasing my father all along. © Eva Mallis © Eva Mallis © Eva Mallis © Eva Mallis © Eva Mallis © Eva Mallis © Eva Mallis © Eva Mallis © Eva Mallis © Eva Mallis © Eva Mallis Eva Mallis’ photographic journey is a quiet witness to the power of observation and the dignity of everyday life. Her work straddles both the deeply personal and the universally resonant, merging the intimate gaze of a daughter honoring her father’s labor with the discerning eye of a street documentarian committed to truth and nuance. Whether she is navigating the industrial arteries of Mumbai or the dynamic neighborhoods of Queens, Eva consistently reveals the quiet persistence of people and places that the world too often overlooks. Her photographs have earned a growing list of accolades and international recognition. She is a multiple-time finalist and exhibitor at Soho Photo Gallery in New York City, and has shown work at Leica Photo Gallery Mumbai, Atlantic Gallery, El Barrio Artspace, and Matted LIC, among others. Her images have been featured in juried shows by Professional Women Photographers, selected for Women Street Photographers exhibitions, and showcased in digital archives like the Queens Memory Project. Eva’s photography has been published in The Pictorial List: New York Edition, Queens Gazette, covering culturally significant events such as the Queens Hispanic Day Parade and Queens Pride, and her storytelling has been profiled by respected platforms like All-About-Photo and Street Photography Magazine, where her unique perspective on “the world’s borough” of Queens has been widely appreciated. In the competitive realm of photography awards, Eva has been honored by the Monochrome Photography Awards, received Honorable Mentions and Official Selections from the International Photography Awards (IPA) across several consecutive years, and was named a winner in PDN Magazine’s ‘TASTE’ Photography Competition. But beyond the exhibitions and accolades, Eva’s true contribution lies in her ability to see. She sees the effort in labor, the quiet poetry in repeated tasks, and the connection between a photographer and her subjects. She observes the grace in repetition and the shared humanity that connects us across continents and social divides. Her camera becomes a bridge between viewer and subject, between past and present, and between the personal and the collective. “Photography sharpens my awareness of the mundane, the unnoticed and attempts to communicate with sensitivity, people and their themes of life. Walking through the city streets, whether it be New York, Mumbai or Athens, I’ll catch a fleeting moment out of the corner of my eye - and in an instant the adrenaline surges. I feel that unmistakable euphoria of being in the ‘zone’. These photographs are more than images; they are flashes of pure, unfiltered ecstasy.” In an increasingly noisy visual world, Eva Mallis’ photographs are an invitation to pause, to notice, and to remember. In the case of The Everyman , they invite us to honor not just what we see but also what we recognize in ourselves. view Eva Mallis' portfolio website >>> instagram >>> The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author/s and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List. read more stories >>> THE LIFE WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN Ten years after first seeing Larung Gar, Jing Wei returns to a changed mountain, finding continuity in faith, memory and the lives held within it. PROSCENIUM GHOSTS Said Manseur honors these young actors, their courage, and the unseen work they give to keep theatre alive against the odds. REGINA: BOARDING SCHOOL LIFE AND DREAMS A boarding school room becomes the frame for Cleopatra Joint’s portrait of ambition, instability, and a young woman’s search for freedom. LIFE ALONG THE RIVER Along the Hooghly, Shubhodeep Roy photographs Kolkata through faith, labour and memory, revealing a city shaped by water, inheritance and shared life. A HOME OF MEMORIES AND THE PRESENT Davide Santangelo returns to his family home by moonlight, tracing how absence, memory, and love continue to live within place, objects, and atmosphere after loss. THE PULL OF THE EARTH This is more than a record of rural Bengal. It looks at the bond between Sayan Biswas and the place that shaped him, even after distance has changed that relationship. ARE THOSE WINDS Along Istanbul’s northern edge, Ci Demi photographs the last water buffalo herders as they keep working, remembering, and staying put while the city closes in. COLORS OF HÜZÜN Through fragments and gestures, Pedro Vidal traces Istanbul as shared melancholy lingers in everyday life, the city unfolding slowly and refusing to settle into a single, definitive understanding. OUT OF PLAY An exploration of abandoned interiors in which Marco Lugli examines how objects, light, and space carry memory beyond human presence, establishing absence as a condition of material continuity rather than loss. REIMAGINING TALIESIN Form gives way to flux in Amy Newton-McConnel’s photographs, where architecture unfolds as a field of shifting relations and perception moves with light, geometry, and time. WHERE THE MUSIC BEGINS Before the strings, Jeevan Akash Jayavarthanan leaves the movement of the street for the rhythm of the workshop, where time holds, hands work, and each moment forms what will later be heard. LAND, LABOR, AND THE GOLDEN FIBER In West Bengal’s jute fields, Rajesh Dhar examines the systems of land and labor, tracing how a single material sustains communities and informs a changing ecological future. WITH GRATITUDE AND DEVOTION A quiet and intimate account of devotion in Zaraza, Venezuela, Rafael Ayala Páez reflects on faith, memory, and community through photographs and words that honor the enduring power of small gestures. SILVER AND BREATH Within this fragile space between looking and being seen, Eva Christina Nielsen has developed a practice that is both restrained and deeply attentive. RUPTURE REPAIR REMNANT In this reflection on rupture, Donna Bassin invites us to consider how grief settles into the body and the image, and how the slow work of witnessing becomes a form of repair. DELTA DUSK John Agather weaves image and text into a single current, tracing how music, memory, and daily life continue to move through the Mississippi Delta. SILENT BEAUTY Tamara Quadrelli photographs the world by slowing down inside it. There is no rush to explain what we are seeing. The pleasure comes from staying with it. SOLITUDE UNDER A TECHNIFIED SUN Tracing the space between movement and stillness, Héctor Morón reveals a city that persists as human presence slips by. 4320 MINUTES WITHOUT COLOR Moving between photography and narration, Mohammed Nahi traces a period in which sight could no longer be assumed as reliable, and attention shifted toward memory and duration. THE PAINTED VILLAGE OF LABANDHAR Anjan Ghosh’s photographs carry us to Labandhar, where painting becomes language, tradition stays present, and art grows through shared ground. ORDINARY GRIEF What endures when everything else is uncertain? Through photography, Parisa Azadi asks us to see Iran not as story, but as feeling. THE EVERYMAN Eva Mallis uncovers the quiet strength of overlooked lives, capturing everyday encounters in Mumbai’s industrial districts as intimate portraits of labor and resilience. IN BETWEEN LIFE AND AFTER In Cairo’s City of the Dead, families carve out ordinary lives among centuries of tombs — Paola Ferrarotti traces the fragile line between memory and survival. UNFIGURED Nasos Karabelas transforms the human body into a site of emotional flux — where perception fractures and inner states become visible form. VISIONS OF ICELAND FROM ABOVE Massimo Lupidi takes flight above Iceland — capturing nature’s abstract brushstrokes where land, water, and sky blur into poetic visions beyond the ordinary eye.

FROM A DISTANCE Observing people from a distance, Antonis Giakoumakis feels that he is distancing himself and becoming more objective...and more free! FROM A DISTANCE August 31, 2020 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Antonis Giakoumakis INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE As Antonis Giakoumakis gazes through the lens of his camera, he creates a visual story that connects with something much deeper than just the physical world. Born in Chania, Crete and now residing in Chalandri, Attica, Antonis has been "quite absorbed" by photography since 2012. His most recent photo project, FROM A DISTANCE, has been published as a photo book and is a testament to the powerful impact that photography can have on its viewers. In this interview, Antonis shares how he has evolved over the years as a photographer and offers insight into his creative process and vision. From the importance of learning from other photographers to the value of recognizing that the world is not what it seems, Antonis' words will touch your heart and give you a greater appreciation for the beauty of life that can be captured through photography. Join us as we explore the captivating work of Antonis Giakoumakis and uncover the secrets of his creative journey. “Photography is for me all the things that I do not want to forget in the moment I see them, in the space where I am found, I move, I listen and I observe. It cannot be objective, but it can be a constant reminder that the world is not what we see. It is creation, communication, a narrative. In other words, it is the representation of a truth, a fact that you are aware of at the moment of the click. A reality of your own that you feel the need to share with other people. A reality that can be different for someone else…” IN CONVERSATION WITH ANTONIS GIAKOUMAKIS THE PICTORIAL LIST: Antonis, for your feature you sent us your photo project FROM A DISTANCE. Tell us more about your project, what you were thinking about, and how you approached putting it together. ANTONIS GIAKOUMAKIS: This series of my photographs, which has also been captured in a photographic book, is nothing more than an attempt to approach human moments that most often take place subconsciously. An effort that continues. Observing people from a distance, I feel that I am distancing myself and that I am becoming more objective, more free! The large horizon, the most complete picture of the space, creates an incomparable sense of harmony and form…a calm. So, many times you get the feeling of changing time with leaps into the past or the future. The power of photography for me lies in symmetry, clarity and austerity in order to create emotions in its viewing, narratives reminiscent of music and poems we have heard or read. To be able to highlight the experiences of the photographer to bring to the surface his memories, because photography is their 'recorder'. I don't believe and I don't try to 'make' a concept with my photos, I am more interested in creating an atmosphere which, if it comes out charged, then the essence of the photo has many chances for the viewer to appear with the ultimate goal, to be collected. Too often I go back to the same places where I have been before and take pictures again and again, in an attempt to capture the 'ideal' atmosphere I would like and that may be different each time as it depends on the emotional and my mental state that I am in the specific time, as well as the given scene that fleetingly passes before my eyes. So, I try to approach my subject in an abstract way, putting as little information as possible in the composition of the frame isolating only the essential, with the greatest possible objectivity, so as to bring the human to the forefront, knowing that many times this may be… an illusion! Friedrich Nietzsche emphasizes that "Freedom is to be able to have a distance from others." TPL: Generally speaking, when did you start getting interested in photography? AG: I remember from a young age taking pictures, using my cousin's Leica, particularly on school excursions. But essentially, I started after my retirement in 2012. You see, my career didn't give me much personal time! TPL: Where do you find your inspiration? AG: I think from life itself in all its manifestations. From humans and their environment...urban, provincial, landscape. By abandoning, absence, or by a street scene. I am inspired by an image where human presence is implied. I often think that photography is an inner need to express our feelings and relive images that often pass cinematically through our eyes or that are presented to us by chance suddenly. Using a superlative tone... to trap the time and to pass into immortality. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? AG: Among the many great photographers, I consider André Kertész to be the teacher of photography. The photographer who with his lens showed the value of the insignificant. He photographed for more than half a century in Hungary, Paris and New York, creating some of the simplest and most poetically fascinating images ever made. André Kertész used to say: “I express my feeling at a given moment. Not what I see but what I feel! And of course the great Constantine Manos, the Greek photographer of ordinary people! TPL: Where is your favorite place to photograph? AG: Near the sea, I love the sea...I was born near the sea in Chania. TPL: Has your style of shooting changed since you first started? AG: All things in life evolve day by day. The maturity of the eye makes me freer and more infiltrating, I think. To some extent this is due to the fact that I am seeing, almost every day, a lot of photos of 'classic' or newer photographers and I am 'reading' them with more attention. But my frame...with its geometries and with a minimalist approach...remains the same. Freedom is to be able to have a distance from others. - Friedrich Nietzsche TPL: What equipment do you prefer to use? Do you think equipment is important in achieving your vision in your photography? AG: I have a DSLR, I have a mirrorless, I have a mobile but I use my heart and my eyes, I don't need equipment to express myself, my emotions. TPL: What characteristics do you think you need to become a good photographer? AG: Love for the art of photography, love for people, the environment. To walk around in things, to be interested and concerned about what is happening around you... and strong legs! I am not so good at giving advice in general, I believe everyone must find the path to art by themselves. It is never too late! You need to know, everything your eyes are seeing is not always what it looks like. The world is not what we see! It is the indefinable and unclear that leads us to a personal approach, trying to analyze it, without succeeding every time! But it must be a continuous path... TPL: Have you ever been involved in the artistic world before photography? AG: I love music, I played the guitar, I like poetry and painting. My son is also a musician, and my wife is a painter. Art has always had a place in my heart! TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? AG: Many of my projects are in the process of being renewed. That makes me creative. I want to publish one more photo book (in addition to the 3 photo books I have already published) that will contain some 'small' projects that I have, but emphasizing on the texts that will accompany the photographs, which of course will remain the main subject. But all this depend on the conditions...The main issue is to be healthy! TPL: “When I am not out photographing, I (like to)… AG: I like to see photos while listening to music! The most essential is to remain a father of two kids and grandfather of three grandchildren. It is important for me to find the time and a way to feel close to them!” PORTFOLIO WEBSITE INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

VISUAL AMBIGUITIES Through her photography, Alicia Haber's intentions are to question what is the 'realism' or what is the 'truth' to stimulate the viewer. VISUAL AMBIGUITIES May 3, 2020 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Alicia Haber INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Alicia Haber is an esteemed Art Historian and Curator of Contemporary Art who has led a fascinating life of international travel and exploration. Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, she has since made a name for herself in the art world, receiving grants and invitations from universities and cultural institutions across Western Europe and the United States. Now retired, Alicia has taken up photography as her passion and is using her lens to challenge the notions of ‘realism’ and ‘truth’. Through her creative works, she encourages viewers to look beyond the surface and ponder the ambiguities of what they observe. Decades of exploration, study, and observation have made Alicia a masterful storyteller; her photographs are proof of her extraordinary eye for detail and her ability to capture profoundly captivating moments. Join us as we learn more about Alicia Haber, her eye-opening works, and her journey to becoming a renowned visual artist. “Since I was very young, but I only took photographs as a tourist, for my Art History classes, or of my children. I have been a photographer for the last two years and a half once I started studying photography. Then, after I knew how to deal with the technical aspects of my Sony Alpha 6300 and with editing with Photoshop, I started looking for my own subject matters and my own personal visual language.” IN CONVERSATION WITH ALICIA HABER THE PICTORIAL LIST: Hello Alicia...welcome to The List! Tell us, where do you find your inspiration? ALICIA HABER: I find inspiration in the city, basically in Montevideo and also in cities in Brazil, where I travel quite often. I am a very urban person. I am not attracted to landscapes, flowers, and nature in general. People in their daily life interest me a lot. I am not in search of a realistic depiction of the world. My photos, in general, concentrate on reflections, blurs produced by camera movement or slow speed and movement of the subject, silhouettes. In general, though, I do not want total abstraction. I let the image or images to be seen, to stay in the picture, even if they are blurred or duplicated. TPL: Where is your favourite place to photograph? AH: In the city, in the streets, in places related to urban life. TPL: Do you feel that you have grown in your photography since you started almost 3 years ago? Has your style of photographing changed? AH: Yes, it has changed. My photography is a work in progress. I keep studying, now by myself, learning about new ways of expressions, trying to find new challenges and finding new approaches. TPL: Tell us more about your involvement in the artistic world before photography? AH: I am an Art Historian and curator. I have taught Art History, wrote books on famous Uruguayan artists, curated hundreds of exhibitions of Uruguayan artists both in Uruguay and abroad (Brazil, Argentina, New York, Los Angeles, Germany, Venice Biennale, Sao Paulo Biennale, among others), have presented papers on Uruguayan art in several conferences of Art Historians and Art Critics in Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Sweden, and many other countries. I am not in search of a realistic depiction of the world. TPL: What characteristics do you think you need to become a better photographer? What’s your tips or advice for someone in your genre? AH: Be audacious. Be curious. Open your mind. Reject the obvious. Look at Contemporary art. Visit museum or virtual museum. Watch very good films with very good photography. Learn from the photography masters. Keep visiting sites where you can look for different types of photography, particularly the ones that break stereotypes. Establish dialogues with other colleagues. TPL: Do you think equipment is important in achieving your vision in your photography? What would you say to someone just starting out? AH: Good equipment is necessary. It does not have to be an expensive one. You can always upgrade it later. It is important to know how to use it. Then, the real important thing is to look at the world around you and find ways to depict it in your own way. Ex nihilo nihil. So, look at what other photographers, particularly masters, have done. And learn from them. Do not copy them. Be inspired by them. Look for your own style. Look for your own voice. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us? AH: Saul Leiter, William Klein. And many, many others. TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? AH: During the lockdown and quarantine period we are now living, I have to stay at home, and keep photographing. It is a new challenge. I have to solve the problems alone. I photograph outside my window at night, in the evening, and inside my apartment. My intention is always to problematize the regard and challenge common concepts of what is real. So, also at home I work with camera movement or the movement of the model. Fortunately, a Brazilian friend is staying with me during the quarantine, and she is so nice that she lets me photograph her. I am trying to convey different moods produced by confinement, also everyday life during Covid-19, inside and outside the apartment and what is going on with the neighbours. TPL: "If I wasn't photographing what would I be doing?... AH: Now my great passion is photography, so I cannot imagine anything else." PORTFOLIO WEBSITE INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

PEOPLE AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT Before it was too late, Anwar Ehtesham bought himself a camera and discovered a passion for photographing people in their environment. PEOPLE AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT July 13, 2022 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Anwar Ehtesham INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE When life gives you a second chance, you take it. That is what Anwar Ehtesham did when he decided to invest in his own camera and pursue his dream of becoming a photographer. Growing up in Bangladesh, he was surrounded by an environment that inspired him and filled him with creativity. Now living in the capital city, Anwar has been able to hone his skills and perfect his art of capturing humans in their environment. He believes that the environment plays such an important role in provoking different moods and that is what makes the photograph so special; the people. In this interview with The Pictorial List, Anwar shares some of his creative journey, his struggles growing up and why he chose to pursue photography as his lifetime pursuit. Join us as we explore the passion and dedication of a determined photographer and learn more about the story behind Anwar's lens. “While walking through the narrow streets of Old Dhaka, I suddenly noticed a father playing with his 1 year old son. That intimate moment caught my eye and I approached them. After taking the photos, I spent some time with them and told him that I’ll be back with the hard copies of these photos. After about 3 months later I went to his place along with the hard copies. And they were so happy after getting the photos that I cannot explain in words. They called their neighbours and showed the photos to them. It was an emotional moment for all of us. And guess what, they were so happy that they gave me the permission to visit their place anytime I wanted. And this was priceless.” IN CONVERSATION WITH ANWAR EHTESHAM THE PICTORIAL LIST: Hello Anwar, please tell us about yourself. ANWAR EHTESHAM: I was born in 1983 in a small town of Kisharganj in Bangladesh. However, my parents moved to the port city, Chittagong, when I was at the age of two. After completing my higher secondary education, I moved to the capital city of the country, Dhaka, in 2004. Dhaka is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city in the world. Since I moved from Chittagong, one of the most naturally beautiful cities of Bangladesh, I was having a hard time adjusting with the environment and busy life of Dhaka. Leaving most of my friends behind at my hometown made it worse. And unfortunately, I could not make friends in this new environment. So, living in Dhaka became a nightmare. In 2006, I completed my Bachelor in Business Administration with a Marketing major. After graduation, I joined one of the largest advertising agencies in Bangladesh. Whilst working there, I came across many creative people. Being able to work with and learn from creative minds, my passion for photography got the boost it needed. However, my job was very hectic and it occupied me for month after month. To put icing on top, I also decided to enrol in Masters in Business Administration at East West University in 2008. And that made life even busier. Over the period of time, I worked for multiple organizations and enrolled in many different executive programs and online courses. As I was getting busier day by day, I could never start photography. TPL: How did your journey into photography begin? AE: It was in mid-2019, it hit me - I am getting older! If I don’t do anything now, I never will! So, I bought my first camera in November 2019. It was Canon EOS 80D. Initially, I did not know what to shoot and how to shoot. I used to take pictures of my kids, people around me, flowers and trees in P mode. But I realised that I was not doing it right. So, I started learning photography from YouTube and online journals. Initially I was very interested about landscape photography. But soon, I had realized that it is not my cup of tea as it involved lots of travelling. I soon discovered that street photography is the best fit for me. I was extremely shy and nervous when I held the camera on streets. So, I used to take photos using long telephoto lenses so I could take photos from a distance. But then in early 2020, the world was plagued with COVID-19. Everybody started wearing masks. And that was the game changer for me. Since, the people I shot wore masks and so did I, our identities were not disclosed. That gave me the comfort of getting close to people. During this time, I formed a small group of like-minded and enthusiastic street photographers. We have gone out for photo walks most weekends. That has helped me to shoot confidently on the streets, explore new places of the city and exchange different thoughts about photography. TPL: Talk to us about your method of working before the final image. Do you know exactly what you want from the beginning? AE: My methods are pretty simple. I go through my pictures several times right after the photowalk. Then after returning home, I organise my photos in three different folders. These are: Priority, Potential and Stock. First, I start picking photos from the 'priority' folder and try to critically analyse my photos. When I am done analysing the 'priority' folder, I move to the 'potential' folder and do the same. I hardly search photos from the 'stock' folder. I do a very little post-processing which basically includes minor cropping and colour corrections, and adjusting shadows and highlights, etc. However, I have a philosophy about post-processing. I don’t post-process unless it is necessary (that’s probably because I am lazy). And when it is necessary, I don’t want to heavily change the scene or colours. It is because I want to keep my frames true to the scene. It depends from scene to scene. However, I can tell what exactly I am going to get in most cases. TPL: What was the first camera you ever held in your hand, brought to eye, and released a shutter on? What is the camera you use now? Does the equipment you use help you in achieving your vision in your photography? What is on your Wishlist? AE: The first camera I ever held in my hand, brough to eye and released shutter was a film camera; Yashica MG-2. I was probably 4-5 years old then and the camera was owned by my father. Interestingly, we still have that camera. The first camera that I bought was a Canon 80D coupled with Canon 18-135mm zoom lens. Then later on, I tried many cameras namely, Canon 1300D, Sony a6000, and Sony A7iii.. Finally, I’ve settled on three cameras namely, Sony A7iii, Fujifilm X-T30 and Ricoh GR 3. Well, the Ricoh was bought 2-3 months ago. My most favourite setup by the way is Fujifilm X-T30 coupled with Fujinon XF 16mm F2.8 (24mm full frame equivalent). It’s a very cute and small setup. But the abilities of this setup are enormous. Most of my favorite shots came from this setup. I’ve also started loving Ricoh these days. It is also a capable camera. But Ricoh has its limitations too, especially in low light situations. Since I have tried many different cameras as well as focal lengths, I know which camera or setup can do what in certain situations. Frankly speaking, I have more gear than I need. Mostly because of whimsical buying. I think gear is secondary when it comes to achieving my vision. Every gear can produce decent pictures these days. But what really helps to achieve a certain result is the power of observation and patience. Like I said, I think I have everything I need. However, there are two Wishlist cameras. These are Hasselblad 907X Anniversary Edition and Leica M10. TPL: What have been some of your most memorable moments as a photographer? AE: I think every walk is memorable for me. I go to places, meet new people, exchange thoughts and more. This is a very satisfying feeling. As you have asked, I’ll share one of my most memorable moments here. It was probably mid-January, 2022. I went to Old Dhaka as usual. While walking through the narrow streets of Old Dhaka, I suddenly noticed a family; a father playing with his 1-year-old son. That intimate moment caught my eye and I approached them. It was a very narrow space and challenging in terms of lighting conditions. Moreover, I entered into their personal space. So, I was a bit nervous. However, the father did not mind when I sat beside him. To start with, I praised his son and asked for his permission to take a few photos. He allowed me to take the photos. After taking the photos, I spent some time with them and told him that I’ll be back with the hard copies of these photos. In reply, he told me that it’s okay. After about 3 months later I went to his place along with the hard copies. The father wasn’t there at that time. So, I gave the pictures to his wife. Meanwhile, the father also arrived home. And they were so happy after getting the photos that I cannot explain in words. They called their neighbours and showed the photos to them. It was an emotional moment for all of us. And guess what, they were so happy that they gave me the permission to visit their place anytime I wanted. And this was priceless. I want to show the world that this city also has its own beauty and colours. TPL: Do you have a favourite photography/art inspired quote or saying? AE: Yes, I do. “If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough,” by Robert Capa. In fact, this quote changed my entire photography style and approach. TPL: What are some of your most favorite places you find inspiration to explore through your photography, and what draws you there? AE: It is the people and their positive energy that draws me to those places. I usually go to the most struggling people of the city. Most of them live from hand to mouth. Sometimes, they don’t even get enough food or rest. But still, they remain unstoppable. Despite hundreds of adversities, they are fighting every day with new vigor. Their mental strength and motivation to survive fascinates me again and again. TPL: Do you have any favorite artists you would like to share with us? AE: Yes, I do. In fact, the list is pretty long. I am a big fan of Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Vivian Maier, Saul Leiter, Alan Schaller, Raghu Rai, Vineet Vohra, and many more. However, Fan Ho and Steve McCurry are my most favorites. Being said that, I try to gain my photography inspirations from all genres and styles. Sometimes, it’s not limited to photography only. I believe that creativity can come from anywhere and anything. TPL: Are there any other photographic projects you are working on, or have planned in the near future? Where do you hope to see yourself in five years? AE: I am currently working on a long-term project. It’s about the city I live in. Dhaka is known as one of the most dirty, unhealthy and ugly cities of the world. But I want to show the world that this city also has its own beauty and colours. In fact, my ultimate plan is to publish a coffee table book containing 101 photos that will portray the beauty and stories of this city. TPL: “When I am not out photographing, I (like to) … AE: Spend time with my family. And if I get more time, I want to look at other photographers' works and explore new perspectives.” PORTFOLIO INSTAGRAM WEBSITE read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

I am an amateur street photographer, shooting mostly in London and south east England. I try to capture the essence of a person or say something about humanity in my photographs. For this reason, all my work is candid. Street photography, to me, is about looking at the everyday and finding beauty in it. That's the challenge and the thrill - setting off on a day's shooting I never know what I will get. Most of the time it's like fishing in a polluted stream and all I catch is rubbish - every so often I catch a gem and it's those moments that make it so exhilarating, so addictive and so worthwhile. Because I try to be discreet, I shoot with small cameras and usually with a small prime lens. HUGH RAWSON I am an amateur street photographer, shooting mostly in London and south east England. I try to capture the essence of a person or say something about humanity in my photographs. For this reason, all my work is candid. Street photography, to me, is about looking at the everyday and finding beauty in it. That's the challenge and the thrill - setting off on a day's shooting I never know what I will get. Most of the time it's like fishing in a polluted stream and all I catch is rubbish - every so often I catch a gem and it's those moments that make it so exhilarating, so addictive and so worthwhile. Because I try to be discreet, I shoot with small cameras and usually with a small prime lens. LOCATION Surrey UNITED KINGDOM CAMERA/S Fufi X-T3 and Fuji X100F WEBSITE http://www.hughrawson.com @HUEYRAW @HUGHRAWSON FEATURES // Life Lessons

STRANGERS IN SHANGHAI Cindy Wang loves her city. She uses photography to record her obsession with strangers in her home city Shanghai. STRANGERS IN SHANGHAI September 30, 2020 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Cindy Wang INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE As the cacophony of city life hums in the background, Cindy Wang stands still, a camera in hand, waiting for her chance to capture the present moment in all its imperfect glory. Through her lens, she seeks to capture the unique beauty of the people and places that make up the vibrant city of Shanghai, a place that holds a special place in her heart. Growing up, she had fond memories of her grandfather taking photos of her with a film camera, igniting a passion for street photography that has become an integral part of her life. Cindy’s obsession with strangers and their behaviour in and around Shanghai, avoids pursuing perfection, instead choosing to focus on the small moments of life that often go unnoticed. Join us as we take a closer look at Cindy’s incredible journey, and discover why she loves her city so much. “I am from Shanghai and I live and work here. I started drawing when in elementary school and continued to do so. I graduated from art school, majoring in interior design. I am currently designing clothes and accessories for dogs. My grandfather introduced me to photography but it was at university where I took a course in photography and bought my first camera which was a digital Olympus.” IN CONVERSATION WITH CINDY WANG THE PICTORIAL LIST: Cindy, where do you find your inspiration? CINDY WANG: From movies and visiting art galleries worldwide, where I study the artistic geniuses from the past; also from my travels, where I have witnessed not only the most amazing scenery, but humble people going about their daily business. TPL: What do you want to express through your photography? What are some of the elements you always try to include in your photographs? CW: I want to capture the meaningful 'moment in time' of my subject, with particular attention to using light and shade to its greatest effect. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? CW: Robert Doisneau and Walker Evans have inspired my photography. TPL: Do you prefer to shoot alone or with friends? CW: I prefer to shoot alone so that I can concentrate on what I am trying to achieve without distractions. TPL: Do you have a preferred lens/focal length? CW: My favourite lens to use are 23mm F1.4 and 50mm F2 I look for interesting people in everyday life, perhaps in the streets, at the market, in the harbour, just anywhere, going about their daily business. TPL: Where is your favourite place to photograph? CW: The station, art centres, in the streets, the market, just about anywhere I find an interesting subject. TPL: Has your style of shooting changed since you first started? CW: Yes, my style has changed dramatically...I originally shot buildings and landscapes. But now I look for something out of the ordinary, in the same way that Leonardo da Vinci used to go to the market in Florence to sketch old and interesting people. Just like is crowd scenes in his masterpieces, I look for interesting people in everyday life, perhaps in the streets, at the market, in the harbour, just anywhere, going about their daily business. TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? CW: I regularly go down to the harbour in Shanghai and I am building a portfolio of life in Shanghai harbour. TPL: What are some of your goals as an artist? Where do you see yourself or hope to see yourself in five years? CW: I am determined to become a professional photographer – I want to be renowned as someone that a client can rely on to produce the best product possible. TPL: “When I am not out photographing, I (like to)... CW: I am fascinated with art and have been all over the world visiting art galleries. I travel a lot, and I’m interested in all other cultures. In my spare time, I read, draw, paint and do calligraphy. I go to the movies and take yoga classes. Other than that, I spend time walking the streets, going to markets etc., wherever I may find interesting people or places to shoot." PORTFOLIO INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

WHAT LIES BENEATH Working in his family's mask-making atelier, a curiosity developed within Bastian Peter, surrounding what lies beneath someone's facade. WHAT LIES BENEATH March 10, 2021 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Bastian Peter INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE With an eye for creativity and a passion for storytelling, Bastian Peter is a street photographer based in Basel, Switzerland. Born and raised in the city, Bastian has been fascinated by the idea of uncovering the hidden stories behind the people and places he encounters. Growing up within his family's mask-making atelier, Bastian developed an early curiosity for understanding what lies beneath someone's façade. After picking up a camera for the first time and venturing out into the streets of Basel, Bastian’s passion for photography began to take off. He was intrigued by the potential of composition, colour and perspective to convey emotion and tell stories. Bastian is the co-founder of The Swiss Street Collective, an exclusive group of photographers who capture the visual identity of Switzerland. Bastian continues to be inspired by his hometown of Basel and strives to explore a different side to its unique culture through his work. His aim is to create images that evoke emotion, allowing viewers to get a glimpse into the lives of those he photographs in order to discover the hidden stories behind them. By tastefully combining colour, perspective and light, he succeeds in uncovering the beauty of everyday life. “I have always been interested in photography. It's just that I never pursued it the way I have in recent years. I never had the confidence to do it. My mother was a professional photographer and I vividly remember her studio, the darkroom and the smell of freshly developed film and the chemicals needed for the process. She and my father were always involved in art and photography and so it was always a part of my own life growing up. My personal interest was piqued when I got my first Sony point and shoot camera in the mid 90's. My interest came and went and in the last few years I got into street photography without knowing it was a real genre. Since the beginning of 2019, I've been shooting regularly on the streets and loving it. It has become a big part of my life.” IN CONVERSATION WITH BASTIAN PETER THE PICTORIAL LIST: Bastian, where do you find your inspiration to photograph? BASTIAN PETER: Great question. My inspiration comes from many places, to be honest. First of all, there is my childhood and like everyone, I have dreams and subtle memories. Often feelings as well. Emotions associated with places, sounds, images or even the smell of a place. All of this is connected to nostalgia and a kind of brooding sense of stories and romance. It sounds a bit pretentious and pompous, but that's because it's hard to find the right words. It's very abstract. Another answer to this question is cinema. Ever since I can remember, I've always been a fan of cinema. In my country, we don't have the rich and diverse and old film culture as in other countries, so maybe I've always been fascinated by foreign cinema like French or German cinema, from which I'm still trying to learn visual storytelling. TPL: Do you have a favourite quote, lyric or saying that especially resonates with you? BP: Of course I know a lot of quotes or sayings of a number of legendary photographers. And like I think they all are true and have their place, I think it's also true to find your own inspiration and your own way. Don't get me wrong, I love reading about all those great photographers and I own a number of their books of course. A quote I read a few weeks ago, did stick with me. I never heard it before and it was by Alfred Stieglitz. It goes like this: “In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.” TPL: Your photography has this beautiful abstract narrative about it...full of light, colours and textures. What do you want to express through your photography? And what are some of the elements you always try to include in your photographs? BP: That's a very interesting question. First of all, thank you so much, your compliment means a lot to me. I really mean it. I experienced a lot of days and nights, where I really tried to focus on certain elements like texture, color or a certain scenery. Or where I tried to stake out a certain place and really was planning to work on a specific corner and wait - however long it takes - so that I have that one background to a scene that I like. But it never worked out. I am not the guy for that I think. I have absolutely no patience to wait somewhere. I learned that I am most comfortable in walking around. Sure, I can stay on a corner for a few minutes just to get a feel of it, but never long and I never am able to plan something. It just happens. Sometimes I don't even think the shots on a certain scene are working and when I get home I am surprised that it did work. The same happens in reverse. Sometimes I get really excited because I feel like I've taken a good picture. And then when I'm at home on the laptop, I realise that it's totally meaningless and boring, or that it just doesn't work. But what I can say is that I'm totally into storytelling and atmosphere. And I try to use everything available. Be it textures of different surfaces, natural elements like rain, light or the time of day. Colour also plays a role, of course, but I look more at what I don't want to have in the picture. There are some hues that I try to avoid. But even there I have no rules. TPL: What is it that you enjoy about street photography. What happens when you walk the streets with your camera? Explain your technique? Have you ever had a negative encounter? BP: I've become quite introverted over the last few years. So when I walk the streets with my camera, it's a great feeling of freedom. It's a completely different look at the streets, the people, and maybe society itself. At least while I'm taking pictures. In Switzerland, street photography is not really a thing yet. At least not in the sense that it is for me and for you. I haven't had any really negative encounters. There was once a security guard who walked up to me and gruffly asked me not to take a picture of any of the buildings I walked past. That still makes me laugh because first, he had no right to ask that and second, he totally pointed out this particular building that I personally didn't even notice. I never did figure out what was special about it or why he didn't want me to photograph it. Maybe he was just bored. Then a few people asked me what I was doing with my camera. I tried to explain, but there's pretty much no understanding of street photography. And when I mention that I'm a street photographer, they look confused and don't know what I'm talking about. Often employees or store owners leave their building to see if I am doing anything illegal. Obviously, I look suspicious. It makes me smile in the moment, but in the past it has often lowered my confidence or killed my mood. I'm trying to work on it and prepare myself. So I made business cards with my website address on them so suspicious people can see for themselves. Waving your smartphone around and showing people your social media doesn't always work out so well. But I haven't had any really bad encounters yet. Fortunately. TPL: What is it like photographing on the streets of Switzerland? Why do you think street photography in Switzerland is not viewed as an art form? BP: It is mostly peaceful. Of course, that also depends on the photographer. If I were to send angry signals to people, for example, that would change, of course. But if I'm not in the mood, I'm not on the street to shoot. People are mostly busy with their schedule. They're in their own head, obviously thinking about their day and their own stuff. It's the unusual perspectives or the unusual places that often get the attention. When I started doing this, and it wasn't too long ago, I didn't know street photography as a genre. And when I started sharing my photos on social media, I was so surprised how big the "online scene" is and how many people are there taking photos on the streets. It was so great and motivating to learn that I'm not alone. After a while I met other people online from my country, even from my city, and most of them - like me - had no idea that they are not alone in this. Find your own inspiration and your own way. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? BP: I love French cinema. Filmmakers like Godard or Melville, but also American cinema and Asian cinema. Wong Kar-Wai, Kim Ki-Duk, Sergio Leone, Takeshi Kitano or Nicolas Winding Refn. The list is endless. Also in terms of photographers, Vivian Maier, Saul Leiter, Robert Frank and Nan Goldin, for example. TPL: Does the equipment you use help you in achieving your vision in your photography? What camera do you use? Do you have a preferred lens/focal length? BP: I mostly use a 50mm prime lens, but I try to use also a zoom lens and a 35mm lens. I own two Sony alpha cameras. The reason I chose them was my budget. It isn't high. The two cameras I own are not very new and therefore not very expensive. So are the lenses. They are small and for me very intuitive to use. I don't have time to change the settings that much. Especially at night every corner in the city has different lighting and I screw up my settings on a regular basis. I try to learn that it isn't that important. But it is a process. We see so much flawless stuff on social media. We have to try ignore that and don't let it pressure us. TPL: When you go out photographing, do you have a concept in mind of what you want to shoot, or do you let the images just "come to you", or is it both? BP: I had that in the past. But it never worked out. Since then, I just try to see what comes my way. That's something about street photography that is very exciting and special. Spontaneity on my part and of course the natural course of the streets and the people. TPL: You have a family business that has been creating masks for The Carnival of Basal. Could you tell us more about this family tradition and how the pandemic has affected the business and you personally? BP: In Basel, in my city, the Carnival, here called Fasnacht, is very important. It is one of the things that has always accompanied us. It is very important for our morale and also for the economy and tourism. Our atelier, the Larven Atelier Charivari in Basel City, has been around since 1976 and we have been making masks by hand since then, in accordance with tradition and traditional methods. There is still a part of the Basel population that prefers these methods to plastic. Our customers visit us every year to commission new masks or to have older ones repaired. Now that the Carnival of Basel 2020 has been cancelled, they are of course sitting on unused masks and have no reason to order new ones. It gets worse now that the 2021 Carnival has also been cancelled. But I don't give up hope and we try to keep our heads above water as long as we can. Personally, all this worries me a lot and causes headaches, fears for the future and sleepless nights. But it also allowed and forced me to focus more on photography. TPL: What are some of your goals as an artist? Where do you see yourself or hope to see yourself in five years? You mentioned that you are one of the founding members of The Swiss Street Collective. Talk to us about this project, how it came about and what are the collective's goals? Are there any other special projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? BP: I am looking forward to the new year, among other things, because a gallerist from Basel let me know that he is interested in exhibiting my work. Yes, the Swiss Street Collective is the first Swiss collective for street photography. We got together last year and planned the project since summer 2020. It started with sharing experiences and chatting about our work. Mutual exchange of opinions and criticisms. We soon realised that our small group, as individual as we are, had very similar experiences on the streets. And we all realized that we were not the only ones. Of course we found each other, but also there were other street photographers from or in Switzerland. Most of us are rather private people and our opinions and views are sometimes very different. This presented us with some difficult decisions. But I am very happy to say that we all pull together and try to do our part to establish street photography as an art form in Switzerland. We want to shine light on it and show its artists, as well as simply show our work. We are working on different things like creating a directory where Swiss Street photographers can register. We are open to all kinds of projects and look forward to the future. We are also open to accept new members. There is a lot to do and we can use all the help we can get. Therefore I am very grateful to be able to introduce and explain the collective here. TPL: When I am not out photographing, I (like to)... BP: Spend time with my family. Thank you so much for this interview and the opportunity. I feel very honored and I am so glad I could talk to you. PORTFOLIO WEBSITE INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

PICTORIAL STORY CHOOSING TO CHALLENGE #IWD #CHOOSETOCHALLENGE 8th March, 2021 PICTORIAL STORY Photography by Suzanne Phoenix Story by Melanie Meggs SHARE Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link As we mark the annual celebration of International Women's Day, there is a resounding call to honor the remarkable social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world. Now in its 109th year, this special day is more than just a milestone, but an opportunity to recognise the incredible progress made by women globally in their fight for gender parity. Every year since 2012 Australian photographer Suzanne Phoenix has curated an International Women's Day photography portrait series - What Does International Women's Day Mean to Me? Suzanne has created an impressive collection of over 100 portraits, featuring inspiring, courageous, shy and outspoken cis and trans women, non-binary people, and others from all walks of life - both from her home city of Melbourne and the Yarra Valley, where she resides. This series includes many well-known artists, activists, authors, musicians, performers, photographers, comedians and fashion designers, as well as boxers, human rights workers, and massage therapists. It is a visual snapshot of the fierce, funny, and extraordinary individuals who have inspired her world. Through this project, Suzanne has sought to respond to the inequality, discrimination, sexism, misogyny and gendered violence that exists in Australia. Photography has provided her with a rhythm to life, a way of pausing and exploring her creative side without judgment, and an opportunity to grow as a person. In this 10th year of the project, Suzanne is celebrating with a self-publication of the portraits and the responses from individuals about the importance of International Women’s Day, as well as documentation of project events and poster paste-ups. Unfortunately, due to Covid restrictions it has not been possible for Suzanne to create new portraits. Lenz Ma, 2020 - Guitarist/vocalist in Spawn, Landscape Architect © Suzanne Phoenix Ra Nikolaidis, 2019 - Makeup Artist, Artist, Dancer, Professional Weirdo © Suzanne Phoenix Jewel De Gelder, 2020 - bass guitarist in Spawn. © Suzanne Phoenix Mary Mihelakos, 2019 - Melbourne Music Enthusiast, Music Victoria Hall of Fame © Suzanne Phoenix Kylie Auldist, 2018 - singer © Suzanne Phoenix Amy Taylor, 2019 - singer in Amyl and the Sniffers and Victorian Musician of The Year 2020 © Suzanne Phoenix Phoebe Taylor, 2019 - part of punk band Bitch Diesel © Suzanne Phoenix Lexi Lovedack, 2018 - guitarist in Lazertits © Suzanne Phoenix Erica Dunn, 2019 - musician in Tropical F**k Storm, MOD CON and Palm Springs © Suzanne Phoenix Keven 007, 2020 - musician in Glitoris © Suzanne Phoenix Helen Marcou AM, 2018 - owner Bakehouse Studios and music advocate © Suzanne Phoenix Christina Aubry, 2020 - artist © Suzanne Phoenix Angela Savage, 2018 - Award-winning author, craftivist and CEO of Public Libraries © Suzanne Phoenix Alice Skye, 2019 - singer and songwriter - Wergaia/Wemba Wemba artist © Suzanne Phoenix Amy-ann Broomhall (Bam-Bam), 2018 - a firebrand performer and community organiser, turned psychology major and dog mother © Suzanne Phoenix Andrew Glitoris, 2020 - musician in Glitoris Band © Suzanne Phoenix Jessi Leigh, 2020 - model, makeup artist © Suzanne Phoenix The self-publication will be available as a printed magazine or book, or a digital download through Suzanne's website and 10% of the profits will be donated to Djirra , an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation providing practical support to Aboriginal people who are currently experiencing family violence or have in the past. Thank you, Suzanne, for giving us this opportunity to share your important work about this very important day for all women. Header Image: Kristy Harris, 2019 - World Championship bronze medallist boxer view Suzanne's portfolio Buy Suzanne's books >>> Read "ISOLATION PORTRAITS" by Suzanne >>> Website >>> Instagram >>> Important sources - International Women's Day Website Donate to Djirra The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author/s, and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List and the team. read more stories >>> THE LIFE WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN Ten years after first seeing Larung Gar, Jing Wei returns to a changed mountain, finding continuity in faith, memory and the lives held within it. PROSCENIUM GHOSTS Said Manseur honors these young actors, their courage, and the unseen work they give to keep theatre alive against the odds. REGINA: BOARDING SCHOOL LIFE AND DREAMS A boarding school room becomes the frame for Cleopatra Joint’s portrait of ambition, instability, and a young woman’s search for freedom. LIFE ALONG THE RIVER Along the Hooghly, Shubhodeep Roy photographs Kolkata through faith, labour and memory, revealing a city shaped by water, inheritance and shared life. A HOME OF MEMORIES AND THE PRESENT Davide Santangelo returns to his family home by moonlight, tracing how absence, memory, and love continue to live within place, objects, and atmosphere after loss. THE PULL OF THE EARTH This is more than a record of rural Bengal. It looks at the bond between Sayan Biswas and the place that shaped him, even after distance has changed that relationship. ARE THOSE WINDS Along Istanbul’s northern edge, Ci Demi photographs the last water buffalo herders as they keep working, remembering, and staying put while the city closes in. COLORS OF HÜZÜN Through fragments and gestures, Pedro Vidal traces Istanbul as shared melancholy lingers in everyday life, the city unfolding slowly and refusing to settle into a single, definitive understanding. OUT OF PLAY An exploration of abandoned interiors in which Marco Lugli examines how objects, light, and space carry memory beyond human presence, establishing absence as a condition of material continuity rather than loss. REIMAGINING TALIESIN Form gives way to flux in Amy Newton-McConnel’s photographs, where architecture unfolds as a field of shifting relations and perception moves with light, geometry, and time. WHERE THE MUSIC BEGINS Before the strings, Jeevan Akash Jayavarthanan leaves the movement of the street for the rhythm of the workshop, where time holds, hands work, and each moment forms what will later be heard. LAND, LABOR, AND THE GOLDEN FIBER In West Bengal’s jute fields, Rajesh Dhar examines the systems of land and labor, tracing how a single material sustains communities and informs a changing ecological future. WITH GRATITUDE AND DEVOTION A quiet and intimate account of devotion in Zaraza, Venezuela, Rafael Ayala Páez reflects on faith, memory, and community through photographs and words that honor the enduring power of small gestures. SILVER AND BREATH Within this fragile space between looking and being seen, Eva Christina Nielsen has developed a practice that is both restrained and deeply attentive. RUPTURE REPAIR REMNANT In this reflection on rupture, Donna Bassin invites us to consider how grief settles into the body and the image, and how the slow work of witnessing becomes a form of repair. DELTA DUSK John Agather weaves image and text into a single current, tracing how music, memory, and daily life continue to move through the Mississippi Delta. SILENT BEAUTY Tamara Quadrelli photographs the world by slowing down inside it. There is no rush to explain what we are seeing. The pleasure comes from staying with it. SOLITUDE UNDER A TECHNIFIED SUN Tracing the space between movement and stillness, Héctor Morón reveals a city that persists as human presence slips by. 4320 MINUTES WITHOUT COLOR Moving between photography and narration, Mohammed Nahi traces a period in which sight could no longer be assumed as reliable, and attention shifted toward memory and duration. THE PAINTED VILLAGE OF LABANDHAR Anjan Ghosh’s photographs carry us to Labandhar, where painting becomes language, tradition stays present, and art grows through shared ground. ORDINARY GRIEF What endures when everything else is uncertain? Through photography, Parisa Azadi asks us to see Iran not as story, but as feeling. THE EVERYMAN Eva Mallis uncovers the quiet strength of overlooked lives, capturing everyday encounters in Mumbai’s industrial districts as intimate portraits of labor and resilience. IN BETWEEN LIFE AND AFTER In Cairo’s City of the Dead, families carve out ordinary lives among centuries of tombs — Paola Ferrarotti traces the fragile line between memory and survival. UNFIGURED Nasos Karabelas transforms the human body into a site of emotional flux — where perception fractures and inner states become visible form. VISIONS OF ICELAND FROM ABOVE Massimo Lupidi takes flight above Iceland — capturing nature’s abstract brushstrokes where land, water, and sky blur into poetic visions beyond the ordinary eye.

PICTORIALISTIC REALITY Ivan Domaratskiy's focus is pictorial photography which is achieved with monocles, soft-focus optics and non-standard photo processes. PICTORIALISTIC REALITY December 23, 2020 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Ivan Domaratskiy INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Travelling through the vast expanse of Russia, one photographer has set out to capture the beauty and mystery of a culture steeped in heritage and tradition. Ivan Domaratskiy has dedicated himself to the art of photography, inspired by the Pictorialists and the films of Andrei Tarkovsky. His craft is a unique vision of capturing scenes in black and white, smoky, blurry, and veiled, achieved with monocles and soft focus optics. In his photographs, Ivan portrays the elusive heritage, nature and ancient architecture as something ghostly, contrasting with sharp and vivid photographs of reality. He is offering a glimpse into a world where time stands still, allowing us to experience the beauty of Russian culture through a different lens. Whether it is an ancient building or a street corner in Moscow, Ivan's images draw us in and compel us to explore further. Experience the timelessness and mystery of Russia through the lens of Ivan Domaratskiy. “I’m a 20 year old self-taught amateur film photographer based in Dolgoprudny, a small town near Moscow. Now I work in laboratory of 2-dimensional materials at MIPT. Photography became my hobby in 2015 when I bought my first film camera. It was old Soviet Zenit. Initially I shot very little, experimenting with styles. Gradually, I purchased other cameras, chose a photography technique. My main hobby is pictorial photography, which I achieve with monocles, other soft-focus optics and non-standard photo processes.” IN CONVERSATION WITH IVAN DOMARATSKIY THE PICTORIAL LIST: Ivan please tell us where do you find your inspiration to keep creating? And do you have a favourite place(s) to photograph? IVAN DOMARATSKIY: I find inspiration in many things from the autumn landscapes in my region to films of Andrei Tarkovsky. My favourite place for shooting is one micro district of my town, situated on an island. I like its old embankment with a park and four-story houses. TPL: Do you have a favourite quote, lyric or saying that especially resonates with you? ID: It is not as easy a question as it seems to be. Many phrases are remembered and attached to a person. Perhaps the best description of me is the statement of one of my friends - “Continue to do something incomprehensible, otherwise something comprehensible can be done by everyone!” TPL: What do you want to express through your photography? And what are some of the elements you always try to include in your photographs? ID: I try to portray the elusive heritage, nature and ancient architecture as something ghostly, contrasting with sharp and vivid photographs of reality. My shots are usually black and white, smoky, blurry, and veiled. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? ID: My favourite artists are Josef Sudek and Sally Mann. Also I like modern photography and mixed-media artists, who work with unusual techniques like Michael Weitzman, Antonio Palmerini and Philomena Famulok. I believe that the greatest influence on my work were the works of my father and of Russian pictorial photographer Georgy Kolosov. I try to portray the elusive heritage, nature and ancient architecture as something ghostly, contrasting with sharp and vivid photographs of reality. TPL: Does the equipment you use help you in achieving your vision in your photography? What camera do you use? Do you have a preferred lens/focal length? ID: My equipment really helps me! Without it, I would hardly have been able to receive such shots. At least it would be much more difficult. I have many film cameras, but mostly I use medium-format Mamiya RB67, full-frame Pentax SF7 and half-frame Agat 18K with soft-focus lens and hand-made monocles. I prefer expired or grainy black and white and color films. Also sometimes I use pinhole. TPL: What are some of your goals as an artist? Where do you see yourself or hope to see yourself in five years? ID: I have participated in many photography contests, including international ones. In some of them I won prizes. Last year I took part in the international competition '35 photo awards' and got into the top 150 photographers in the nomination 'artistic photography'. Also I participated in several photo exhibitions in my institute and in Moscow. In five years I hope to achieve great success in science, and photography as a hobby. Maybe I'll open my darkroom or photo studio. I will work hard in my current direction, participate in photo contests and exhibitions. TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? ID: I have several small projects in photography and collage that I am doing together with my friends, but it is too early to say anything about them. TPL: “When I am not out photographing... ID: And if I have free time, I try to get inspiration from books, films and music.” PORTFOLIO INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

LIFE IN BETWEEN Vicky Markolefa explores the interface of man and the sea world. The project documents the impact of human activities on the marine and coastal environment in the Mediterranean with a human-centric approach. LIFE IN BETWEEN June 3, 2022 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Vicky Markolefa STORY Vicky Markolefa INTERVIEW Karen Ghostlaw Pomarico Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE LIFE IN BETWEEN explores the interface of man and the sea world. The project documents the impact of human activities on the marine and coastal environment in the Mediterranean with a human-centric approach. Humans and marine life have coexisted for eons. During the past decades, the world's seas and oceans have suffered from immense pressures and undergone rapid changes which have affected humans and marine ecosystems in multiple ways. Plastic pollution, unregulated coastal development, excessive tourism, depleted fish stocks and the climate crisis, are key threats to our future. I have been witnessing these realities first hand, documenting the changing landscapes and the challenges of the people who depend on the seas for their survival. Through my collaboration with leading environmental organizations I documented these topics through a wide spectrum which engulfed research and monitoring activities, onsite interventions, rehabilitation and capacity building and awareness raising. “This is a theme very close to my heart and mentality. In this project, I emphasise on profiling leading female scientists and conservationists. Throughout my visual work, female representation is a priority, as I share the long term commitment to promote women's rights through photography. With this project I hope to contribute to a more inclusive and direct dialogue on nature conservation.” IN CONVERSATION WITH VICKY MARKOLEFA In this interview, we ask Vicky about her perspective on the power of photography and the impact it has had in the world of conservation. THE PICTORIAL LIST: Vicky please tell us about your geological location on the Mediterranean that your visual essay examines. VICKY MARKOLEFA: The project spans in four Mediterranean countries: Greece, Albania, Turkey, and Tunisia and covers several locations. I felt it was important to follow the story in different locations, to point out the common points that exist. LIFE IN BETWEEN approaches our relationship with the marine world in the Mediterranean, one of the most touristic and densely inhabited places on the planet. From busy, industrial ports to picturesque villages, and from rocky coastlines to endless stretches of sand and pristine marine protected areas, this is the amazing and ever-changing landscape of the Med. But its soul is in its people, and that is what is slightly different about this project. TPL: Explain the visual investigation you engaged in your studies on human activities and their impact on the marine and coastal environments in the Mediterranean. Describe to us your human-centric approach. VM: I feel strongly that if we are to understand the impact of our actions on the natural world and on ourselves, we should somehow engage with the topic on a deeper, experiential level. Through ‘Life In Between’ I tried to approach the subject from a human perspective and through the stories of the people who live at sea and from the sea, the people who are on the first line of conservation, and most importantly people whose emotional world I could somehow grasp inside an image. ‘Life In Between’ questions our stance on the evident, existential problem that we are dealing with. TPL: Tell us about the importance of the community of women scientists and conservationists you have engaged, and the important contributions they are making. VM: You know, there is a dark side in almost everything. Conservation is no exception. I believe that the reason that the environment suffers so much from manmade pressures is why we and our societies suffer. Patriarchy, unequal power relations, detachment. Hence my interest in profiling female scientists in this project, showcasing their work, and their contribution. And, perhaps, some influence from ecofeminism. I feel even more motivated when I meet change-makers who live and work in remote and disadvantaged areas, such as a small port off the coast of Tunis, Cap Zebib. There I met Amal, a young scientist who overcomes the bias in her community and thrives working as a fisheries observer for the MedBycatch project. These are the stories that show us that a new collaboration scheme is possible. A participatory system where local communities are at the forefront and heart of environmental actions. Imagine an open circuit in which science and policy are informed and improved by encompassing and allowing local experience and new ideas to claim their rightful place. June Haimoff sits at her home in Dalyan, Turkey. June Heimoff or Captain June, an English environmentalist who lives in Dalyan, Turkey, July 2021. In the period from 1984–1988 she and fellow-environmentalists launched a successful campaign to preserve İztuzu Beach as a habitat for the endangered loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). This area is an important nesting site in the Mediterranean. Since 1988 the Köyceğiz-Dalyan region holds the status of Special Environmental Protection Area (SEPA). DEKAMER Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center also operates in Iztuzu beach. © Vicky Markolefa "We are working together with fishers and conservation experts to reduce by catch." Asma Ben Abda, Ingénieur en Chef Ministère de l'Agriculture - La Goulette Port, Tunisia, December, 2021 © Vicky Markolefa © Vicky Markolefa Fisher Arapakis shows a fish with a plastic bottle ring around its neck, Keratsini Port, Greece, October 2021 © Vicky Markolefa Veterinarian Koray Kabadayiogullari cleans the wound of an injured sea turtle at DEKAMER Sea Turtle Rescue Center, Iztuzu beach. Midas, the turtle, has suffered an eye injury and lost both front flippers due to entanglement. Thus, he is unable to survive in the wild. Turkey 2021 © Vicky Markolefa A man digs a hole to bury a dead sea turtle, Turkey, 2021 © Vicky Markolefa TPL: Talk to us about June Haimoff, and her contribution to your project. VM: Kaptan June (June Haimoff) was an English environmentalist who lived in Dalyan in Turkey. In mid 80’s she and other environmentalists launched a successful campaign to preserve İztuzu Beach as a habitat for the endangered Caretta caretta sea turtle and prevent the building of a huge hotel. This beach is protected until today and is one of the main nesting places of the species in Turkey and the Mediterranean. I met Kaptan June while filming the documentary ‘My Name Is Blue’ and I had the honor to be granted one of her last interviews. Unfortunately, she passed away recently. Extract from her interview - "You know, I am a romantic. I love beautiful things and travel and such. I came on a boat, I was a sailor. And I found this place, I don’t know how. I guess it was meant to be. I can sing and dance, I was a singer and a dancer. I didn’t have a degree in beach conservation or anything. But, you see, I have a heart! Our beach was untouched when I first came here. You know what happens to coasts around the world these days. They get developed. Roads come and more buildings. It’s part of my purpose in life, the protection of this beach together with other people. One person alone couldn’t have done it. But I shouted, I spoke, I said…. And what happened? They began to listen. Oh, love. A lot of things wouldn’t have happened without love." June Haimoff, July 2021, Dalyan Turkey Kaptan June Sea Turtle Conservation Foundation My Name Is Blue Documentary (created by Mind The Bump Productions, Directed by Bastian Fischer et moi) TPL: With this project you say you “hope you contribute to a more inclusive and direct dialogue on nature conservation.” Explain this in more detail for us. VM: There’s lots of tiptoeing around conservation topics obviously for political reasons. But even on a daily, personal level too. Our language for example is a key point in this discussion. We often refer to Nature as ‘resources’, which is translated as ‘a pot out of which we can grab anything we need.’ We know well by now that there is nothing beneficial in using this word to describe Nature, and in treating it like this either. These words became values and through repetition and practice, they are the norm. We didn’t always think or act this way, self-destructively. I come from Arcadia in the mountainous Peloponnese. There, the Arcadian ideal used to prevail in people’s lives. The concept that the Human cannot surpass the total and the Natural. It flows with it, not against it. I refer to the kind of approach in which Nature’s intrinsic value is recognized, independently of whether it satisfies human needs or not. Inclusivity that expands from the human scale. Direct approach, yes. Dialogue and informed decision-making not only on an institutional level but also openly, on the ground, from the bottom, up. TPL: Tell us about the supporting veterinarians and clinics that support your efforts. VM: There is a limited network of rescue centers around the Med. They are few and certainly not enough to cope with the thousands of animals that need their help. I had the chance to document the work of Dr. Koray Kabadayıoğulları, veterinarian at DEKAMER Sea Turtle Research and Rehabilitation Center in Turkey. He and his teams work throughout the summer, often long hours and in stretching conditions, to care for the many sea turtles hosted in the center and care also for the ones sent by nearby areas. His work is lifesaving and his commitment humbling. It’s in the paradigm of these low-profile heroes that I find the courage to further pursue my work. Thank you for the inspiration, Koray. Imagine an open circuit in which science and policy are informed and improved by encompassing and allowing local experience and new ideas to claim their rightful place. TPL: Give us a little history on the sea turtles you have documented and what the dangers are, and what are your goals to help them? VM: I have been working on this topic for quite some time and in the process, I think I have seen sea turtles in several states of being, from really bad, to coping, to chilled, I think at least. Midas, is a green turtle that (most probably due to entanglement in fishing gear) lost both his front flippers and damaged his eye. With limited vision and swimming skills, Midas will have serious problems surviving in the wild. He hasn’t reached the age to mate, he hasn’t had a chance to even become an adult. He swims back and forth in his tank, all day long. It’s at least disheartening to see this wild creature, whose life is all about roaming the open seas trapped in this fate because of human negligence. It is even more unfair if we consider that we know what causes these cases and we know what it takes to mitigate them. Experts say that the most common threats for sea turtles are manmade and include entanglement in abandoned fishing gear and bycatch, pollution, loss of habitat, and climate change. Illegal trade is also a big threat, and one hard to tackle. As for the causes of injury and death, among the top ones are plastics ingestion, ecotoxicological problems and, boat collisions. TPL: Tell us about the documentary journey you are on, share with us the multitude of organizations you have engaged and worked with through your collaborations. VM: For this project, certain images have been produced while documenting the work of leading experts through regional and international marine conservation projects: 'Mediterranean Cleanup', ‘Plastic Busters MPAs’, ‘MedByCatch’ and ‘Conservation of Marine Turtles in the Mediterranean Region’. I am grateful for their cooperation. I started taking pictures in adolescence with my father's camera (thank you Dad!) and never stopped. Since 2006, I work professionally in documentary visual storytelling, reportage and communication projects for leading institutions, organisations and media and independently. This journey has nurtured me, offered me interesting experiences and valuable moments for which I am grateful for. TPL: How has this affected the local communities and what is the impact on their daily lives? Describe the social consequences you are witnessing. Is it possible to create change, and if so, how? VM: The degradation of our marine ecosystems can only have negative impacts, limiting our ability to survive and in doing so in a sustainable way. Overfishing for example, is a key threat to food security in Europe, as we import the vast majority of our fish and seafood. Small-scale fishers struggle to make ends meet. Coming from Greece, where the traditional vessels are disappearing to large-scale fleets, we witness the loss of parts of our cultural identities as well. These are the elements that define who we are. Fundamental aspects of our lives are changing faster than we can grasp. Tourism for example is a key source of income for the Mediterranean but also a reason behind loss of habitat for species. We rely heavily on the amazing climate and our ecosystem which offer us the prospect of a great quality of life. Yet, we daily consume so much, and a lot of single-use plastics which we then don’t recycle and dispose of properly. We continue to produce plastic packaging in tons. The Med, apart from home to hundreds of millions of people, also serves as a large corridor for transport and is also a field of research for oil and gas. It’s a lot for such a relatively small place, wouldn’t you say? Change is the only constant they say. The question is: what we are changing on to. Is it a decision we can make ourselves, alone? Many of us act on a daily level and try to adapt, live more sustainably, shop locally and responsibly, recycle, and advocate for political change. In my opinion, our view of ourselves and the world is kind of obsolete. It’s a long conversation, one that involves a talk about religion as well. A hatchling makes its first steps towards the sea, Iztuzu beach, Turkey, 2021 © Vicky Markolefa © Vicky Markolefa © Vicky Markolefa Fisher onboard, La Goulette, Tunisia, December 2021. © Vicky Markolefa "I wish I could change this job. Catching fish for a living. I don't want to catch them. I love them." Fisher, Turkey, 2021 © Vicky Markolefa © Vicky Markolefa TPL: Are the local communities receptive to the efforts and do they join in the alliance to make these changes? VM: Grassroots knowledge has informed conservation practices for years. It is where that is not happening, that we see the major declines. Take the Amazon for example and the land grabs issues. Take also the Masai Mara paradigm where preventive fire is used to create zones in the savannah. In my view, the adaptation stress lies mostly with the decision makers, and academics and the scientists, the fields which are also more prone to top-down approaches, and politically driven. If only we had involved to the locals earlier and more carefully. The adaptation capacity of local communities is also limited, due to the way we approach adaptation as well, how and why we design the strategies we apply. It’s never too late o adopt conservation as a part of common daily life. TPL: What are some short and long term goals? VM: There are exhibitions and publications planned for the next months, where I hope I will have the chance to discuss more these issues. In the long run, I would like to continue working on documentary projects of such scale and orientation and publish my first photobook. Thank you very much for this opportunity! Vicky Markolefa is a visual storyteller and media expert based in between Greece and Germany, working independently and worldwide with organisations since 2016. Vicky specialises in documentary photography and film production with a focus on social and environmental topics. Her portfolio features partnerships with institutions such as the United Nations, the European Commission, and leading organisations such as WWF and Medecins San Frontieres. Vicky's projects have received recognition at international awards, festivals, and exhibitions. Vicky co-founded the productions house Mind The Bump in 2016, where she works as a documentary director and producer. She also is part of the team at BULB Photos/Balkan Collective and also founded Women Photo Greece, the first online community in Greece dedicated to promoting equal participation of female, non-binary and LGBTQIA+ individuals in photography. Views expressed in this interview are solely Vicky Markolefa's and do not represent the views of the organizations or individuals mentioned. Certain images have been produced while documenting the work of leading experts through marine conservation projects "Mediterranean Cleanup", ‘Plastic Busters MPAs’, ‘MedBycatch’ and ‘Conservation of Marine Turtles in the Mediterranean Region’ (Specially Protected Areas Regional Activity Center (SPA/RAC) of the United Nations Environment Programme/Mediterranean Action Plan (UN Environment/MAP), Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS), General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), International Union for Conservation of Nature – Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (IUCN-Med), BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles (MEDASSET), World Wildlife Fund (Mediterranean Marine Initiative), MedPAN, DEKAMER, WWF Tunisia, WWF Greece, WWF Turkey, ARCHELON, National Marine Park of Zakynthos, Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Enaleia.) PORTFOLIO WEBSITE INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.